


Yarn

by kijilinn



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Crochet, Don't ask why he's left-handed, Family, Gen, It got away from me again, Lefty!Dean, Reader Death, Reader Insert, learning, legacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 21:59:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7192454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kijilinn/pseuds/kijilinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daddy teaches his little one how to crochet. A skill he learned from you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yarn

Yarn

For her 10th birthday, Daddy bought Crystal a learn-to-crochet kit. It had two different aluminum hooks inside, three balls of squishy yarn in bright colors, and the instructions for making either a small stuffed toy or a hat. Crystal held the kit in her hands, a wave of disappointment and confusion running through her, visible on her face until her father sat down next to her on the floor and gathered her into his arms. "Crystal," he said quietly in her ear. "Your grandmother used to crochet. You know that blanket that's on your bed? The one you always use for blanket forts?" She nodded eagerly: the brightly patterned granny-square afghan was her favorite. "She made that for your mother when your mother was in school. When your mother and I started dating, she taught us both how."

"You know how to crochet?" Crystal asked him, her eyes wide. "I thought that was girls' stuff."

He grinned, a quiet expression that dimpled his chin and cheeks under his scruff of beard. "I used to tease your mother when she was trying to learn and your grandmother got annoyed with me. So she gave me a hook and said, 'if you're going to be here for this, you might as well learn how, too.' So I did." He leaned against the front of the couch and Crystal settled into his lap. "Want me to show you?"

"Yeah!" He wrapped his warm arms around her and reached for one of the balls of yarn. She snatched the bag from him and said, "No, wait, I'll pick."

"Okay," he smiled. While she looked at the pretty yarns and squished the fibers between her fingers, he rolled one of the hooks across his palm, watching the flash of light from the alternating round and flat surfaces. "Do you know what kind of yarn this is?"

"It says 'wool,'" she said with the wrapper tilted towards her.

"Do you know where wool comes from?"

Crystal knew she knew and leaned against his chest, thinking hard. "It's hair, right? Animal hair?"

"What kind of animal, though?"

"Sheep?"

"Very good! Smart girl!" He hugged her and she giggled. "Can you find the end for me? It might be deep in the middle somewhere."

Crystal turned the ball around until she found the hole in the end and rooted around inside with her finger until she found the loose end of the yarn. She hooked her fingertip around it and pulled it free, then handed it to her father. "Here it is!"

"Good job." He pulled a little more slack from the ball with a flick of his wrist, then settled her against him again. "Lean back, honey, so I can see." She obeyed and he made a slipknot with one hand. "You remember how to make a slipknot, right? I taught you last summer?" When she nodded, he proceeded, catching a loop of yarn through the slipknot. "This is a chain stitch. Real simple. You just pull the loop back through like this." He repeated the motion until he had about ten stitches chained together, dangling from his left hand. "This might be a little hard for you, since you're right handed and I'm a lefty. We'll figure it out though, okay?"

"Okay."

He turned the stretch of chained stitches around and said, "Okay, that's the base chain. To start the next row, you slip your hook in here. I'm going to do single stitches, so just two stitches away from the end." He slipped the hook into a chained stitch two loops away from the end. "And you loop your yarn over like this." His fingers deftly flipped the loose yarn over the hook and he pulled it through, "And you pull it through and catch another thread..." he caught the yarn again and pulled it between the chain stitches and the new loop. "There. That's a single stitch. Make sense?"

"Not really," Crystal admitted softly. All the bright, flipping yarn and the speed of her father's nimble fingers had left her far behind sometime in the middle of the chain.

"It's okay," he told her and kissed the side of her head. "I'll do it some more and then you can try." He repeated the single stitch slowly in each stitch of the chain, still talking through each step of the technique in a soft voice, almost whispered against her hair. After three or four more stitches, Crystal thought she understood better and he asked her, "Want to try it now?"

"Yeah, I think so." He held the hook for her and she awkwardly took it from him. "How do I do this right-handed, Daddy?"

He was quiet for a moment, then chuckled, "Honestly, I have no idea. Do you want to try it left-handed?"

"Maybe." Clumsily, she looped the yarn and inserted the hook, looped the yarn again. "Um... my hand doesn't work."

"It works fine," he kissed her hair again. "It's just practice. You're not used to using it. Try turning the hook around and holding it in your other hand."

She struggled to keep from dropping the slick aluminum hook and the yarn while she negotiated the turn with her fingers, but once she had finished, the whole arrangement felt more natural to her hands. "That's better," she said happily. With careful movements of her fingers and hands, she looped the yarn, pulled it through with the hook and continued until she had finished the row. "There!"

"Great job, sweetie!" Her father hugged her tight. She could hear something funny in his voice, but ignored it in favor of studying the little loops and bumps of the stitches. "Can you make a chain stitch?"

She shifted her fingers and said, "Ummmm."

"Loop the yarn over the hook, then pull it through. Like you did before but without the base." She obeyed and beamed when the stitch hung properly from the hook. "Now turn the whole thing around." Crystal turned the row of stitches around and made a small sound of understanding. "See, you've got a whole 'nother row to work, just like the last one." Her father's voice was proud and amused because she had already started to work the next row just like the first, gaining confidence with every stitch. "Your mother and grandmother would be so proud of you," he whispered and she looked back at him, beaming into his hazel-green eyes.

***

Dean watched your daughter devouring the project book that came with the learn-to-crochet kit. She had already ripped back the practice piece three times, trying new stitches and new configurations based on what she was reading. "She's so smart, Y/N," he whispered softly, tears in his eyes. "I wish you'd gotten to see how smart she is."


End file.
